[0:00] Everyone, for coming. So, my name is Matt Fonderhade. I'm the Township Administrator and Director of Warden Sewer for the Township. We have a number of very informative folks here tonight. So we'll get into introductions in a little bit.

[0:14] I would like to thank the DEAP Montana News and this here from the DEAP. The only way we would be able to do this work is because of the relationship we have with the DEAP, but the funding that they were able to provide so that ram all and

[0:29] I felt or could work on this project.

[0:33] So to give a little background, the township's been involved

[0:36] with the resident staffer, we came up with a resident staffer

[0:40] plan a few years ago, and the opportunity came about

[0:44] that there were some additional funding.

[0:47] So we have a number of projects that we've been trying to make

[0:50] the town more resilient.

[0:52] And in that process, we said, OK, well, hey,

[0:54] this is a real opportunity.

[0:56] We've had one of the things that we've

[0:58] real commitment to is to try to develop partnerships within the community.

[1:03] Pylons are green team, the civic associations, so we have B-Chable Musts of Association

[1:09] and I thank you guys for coming, but being able to have those relationships has helped

[1:14] to foster a lot of the different projects, the plans, the grants, the capital projects that

[1:20] have been done to be able to, you know, try to make the township more resilient.

[1:25] So essentially, this is our agenda tonight, we'll do an introduction, we'll go through a project overview, essentially where we've been, and then what the existing conditions are of foresight.

[1:37] So if you follow along with the township, we're fortunate enough to obtain a $5 million grant to be able to restore the popular point, which is on foresight property.

[1:47] that contract has been awarded.

[1:50] The work is going to start this upcoming year.

[1:53] So there's a dredging season that we have to operate with

[1:58] them with this between July and December.

[2:01] Unfortunately with the government shutdown that we went through

[2:04] the past couple months, we weren't able to start.

[2:06] Exactly when we wanted to start to be able to get that work done

[2:09] this year.

[2:11] That being said, everything's been awarded and it's all set to go

[2:14] for July, so we've been working with the EP on that.

[2:18] But we're also, you know, to continue it a look for funding.

[2:22] So that's why these plans are important.

[2:23] So in that same round, we've put in another grant application

[2:27] to continue to do more work with Forsythe.

[2:30] And the one thing I mentioned with partners,

[2:33] like Forsythe refuge has been an excellent partner.

[2:36] You know, the whole goal here is to make win wins.

[2:38] This is Forsythe land.

[2:40] It's a big manage it and they do an excellent job doing that.

[2:44] We're not going to do anything that they're not all bored with doing so, you know, having a good partner like that, but also realizing that, you know, the importance for their mission is to make sure that that area stays preserved and is open to open to the wildlife, what you're going to see here tonight through these plans is a preliminary.

[3:06] It's essentially like a rough draft of what the climb falter and railball have come up with through these

[3:14] Resamp staffer plans that we've done that would help us go get additional funding that being said that funding has to line up with what four sites is

[3:24] Open to do so that includes any of our partners the other thing we're working on right now is a study with the

[3:31] pay. There's 500 acres of land that the DEP owns north of Bay Avenue, so the direct opposite

[3:39] of where a foresight that is to the north on the map in the mud city section of the township.

[3:45] With that, we're doing a study right now to determine the same thing the climb falter is

[3:50] only it's more detailed. So the idea with doing these studies is we do the studies when

[3:56] opportunities come up whether it's the D.P., whether it's NOAA, whether it's national

[4:02] official wildlife. We then have the opportunity because it's not, oh hey, somebody

[4:07] had a great idea, let's go do it. No, we plan this, you know, that's why we're here tonight,

[4:12] we're doing the workshop to be able to get community input. The idea is, as we've through a

[4:19] studying that the township flunted back in 2019 and 2020 and 2021. That's how the township

[4:25] was able to obtain township by permits. And with those permits, that allowed us these

[4:31] opportunities to then say, okay, hey, D.P. saw us doing that work. Hey, can we work together?

[4:37] Four sites saw us doing that work. Hey, is there a coordination of benefits, right? We have

[4:43] Lagoon system that has material in it, that's the same material that came out of the

[4:49] bar to get bang.

[4:50] Can we take that material and then be able to restore environmental areas?

[4:55] Well, think about it from a township wide perspective, it's a win-win-win, right?

[5:01] So if we can free up the Lagoons, if we can create a better habitat and it helps the refuge

[5:07] or it helps the EPA, and we can provide a resiliency measure.

[5:11] Well now, God forbid, we get another hurricane sanding, there's a resiliency measure, there's a way to add more area for wildlife.

[5:21] So these are areas that I'm talking about that have been eroded over time, so whether it's eroded from sandy or it's eroded through regular tide cycles.

[5:31] This is area that if you look on a map five years ago, 10 years ago, 25, 30 years ago, you're going to see that there was area there before.

[5:39] So, that this material is that same material, and that's part of the reason why we study it

[5:44] because if we can determine that it's, you know, that material and it's a good type of material to be able to use it for restoration, that's what we want to do.

[5:56] So, essentially what you see there is we're talking about the Mars restoration, but then it gets into designs and logistics.

[6:03] Again, these are preliminary thoughts.

[6:05] This is like a draft of, hey, this is a concept that has the potential to be used.

[6:11] Again, what it's meant to is kind of like a night-that flame of thinking of, what can we actually get go out and get funded?

[6:19] So this is like an initial step of lands that haven't been looked at yet, so that's, you know, just keep that in mind.

[6:27] So, introductions, DEP, this doesn't happen without DEP, so thank you, Montana, for, you know,

[6:34] and DEP and all their staff for helping us do that.

[6:38] Montana has been a real asset coordinating and working with all the folks that you're going

[6:43] to hear from tonight, the township, so the mayor and the government body, without them and the

[6:48] support of the mayor and government body to say, hey, this is important to make the township

[6:52] more resilient to work for ways to work with our partners

[6:55] to try to make the community more resilient.

[6:59] We definitely want to do that.

[7:01] And then, between Kleinfeldt and Ramball,

[7:04] they're input from a planning perspective.

[7:07] You're going to hear from Simon.

[7:08] You're going to hear from Megan Jim tonight.

[7:11] They are excellent at what they do.

[7:13] That's how we got to this point.

[7:15] Do you guys want to just do a quick round?

[7:17] The Vinterductions real quick, Sam?

[7:23] I only think I really want to add on Simon Cates and with Rambal, I'm that introduced in Meg Kira.

[7:30] I just want to also mention that we have some folks joining online via Zoom, some folks from the

[7:35] community, and also from our team. So that's Sally Kramer, from Rambal, Julia Lane, from

[7:40] Kleinfield, and Brandon Raymond, from Kleinfield as well. We're going to go through the slides

[7:46] here and then we'll have a Q&A at the end. We'll take questions here in the room. Folks who have

[7:50] joined via Zoom will be able to enter their questions into the chat and so we'll be able to get

[7:55] get some discussion dialogue going both here live and also with folks who are joining us online.

[8:05] Sure, Simon Cates, I'm a senior project manager at Ram Bowl. I'm an urban planner by

[8:10] background, and I focus on flood mitigation and climate-resoling to project. So between my

[8:18] college at Ram Bowl and Jim's at Clientfelder, we have been working in this area in

[8:24] in Long Beach Island through the Resolving Long Beach Island program, and also, there's our second

[8:29] round of work with Matt in Stafford here, focused on resilience to flooding, and we've

[8:38] done similar types of projects in other parts of New Jersey, we did some work recently

[8:43] in the city of Lamberville, we do work in New York and upstate New York and down into the

[8:55] Hi everyone, my name is Mike Kirch. I'm a planner with Rambl and I have background in landscape architecture, environmental planning, focus on climate adaptation, and I'll pass it to Jim.

[9:08] Thank you. Jim Halsman, I'm with Kleinfelder. I do have two people.

[9:14] At Simon mentioned, Julie Elaine and Brandon Raman, they're on other offices, they're joining

[9:21] remotely.

[9:22] I work in our Princeton office, Kleinfield, there's a national company.

[9:26] The office here in New Jersey focuses primarily on water, wastewater, and stormwater, and

[9:30] resiliency.

[9:31] That's my background.

[9:32] I'm a civil engineer.

[9:34] I just came from the public side as a municipal engineer now, I'm back in consulting

[9:37] doing resiliency and, yeah, happy to do that.

[9:41] And Matt mentioned this governing body, but I want to give a lot of props out the mat.

[9:47] He's a big community asset for you guys.

[9:49] He knows where all the money is and he knows where to get the money.

[9:52] And that's far more than most timeships do.

[9:54] So you really are lucky that you have a really good...

[10:03] Thank you.

[10:04] Thank you, Jim.

[10:04] I appreciate it.

[10:06] But that's essentially what you're seeing is I'll tell Ray in the back this all the time.

[10:12] This is the karate kid moment.

[10:13] Right, we're waxing cars and we're paint fences because this is the hard work that goes in to go in to do, you know, going out and to do these things, so like, like I mentioned before between Jim and his staff or client founder and Megan Simon and DEP, we wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't have these folks helping us out, because there's only so much that we can individually do and to be able to take their expertise and put it into this.

[10:43] It really is a great partnership with the APA.

[10:48] So the objectives of tonight is essentially to do what we try to do on a regular basis.

[10:53] We try to do these workshops with the community, essentially to get input from the people that live here.

[10:58] But also you can see like we have other organizations in either online on Zoom or in the audience.

[11:07] Because one of the things we try to do is connect people.

[11:11] and through those connections, get the input because we can't possibly know everything.

[11:16] Every one of us in this room.

[11:18] And so the input that we receive, we take that and we apply it to the plans and the grants and the budgets that we do.

[11:26] You'll see this conceptual design, Simon, Jim and Megan are going to talk about that.

[11:31] These are essentially, again, just drafts of what could have potential for areas to look at and do more planning work into the future.

[11:38] and then we're going to answer any questions that you may have.

[11:44] So Simon mentioned this, we have folks joining us on Zoom tonight, part of the grant

[11:49] process is not only do we want the feedback, but part of the grant process is the DP wants

[11:55] to see, like, okay, we're getting community output, doing community outreach and getting input

[11:59] from the community, and obviously we're here in person.

[12:05] So, this is our timeline, the township started, we started this essentially as a part of a bigger project.

[12:15] We have a sewer system that's in need of replacement in BTW and in that process the sewer system when I started here in 2019 needed to be replaced.

[12:25] It was failing in specific sections and what we did was we came up with what we're doing tonight.

[12:31] we came up with a plan and we need to replace us. Well, during that process, that's

[12:36] when we started talking with the civic associations and getting input from residents in

[12:40] this area of the township. And they said, hey, they, you know, B. Chavin Lusk was

[12:44] dredged in the 1950s, 60, 70s. Nobody has really done any drip.

[12:58] And in that time, you

[13:00] know, to be able to do this when this B. Chavin Lusk Lagoon system was

[13:16] dredged. DEP wasn't

[13:20] around at that point. So now to be able to

[13:22] direct we had to look to say okay well what needs to be

[13:26] done to be able to open that up to the community. So we

[13:30] worked with the act engineers and with act we came up with

[13:35] a township my direct permit that came about through this

[13:41] study. As we did that study I said we built try to build

[13:45] those connections I had met with Dave Rosenblatt from

[13:48] paying and Dave had put us on to working on a resilient staffer's specific plan.

[13:55] Long Beach Island had a plan that was approved through a grant process.

[14:01] Unfortunately, the former administration did not jump into that process, so Stafford was

[14:06] left out.

[14:07] Well, the issue with that was, with that being said, the connection between all those

[14:13] communities, you have to get through Stafford to be able to get out of harm's way from

[14:17] be eye communities. So, and working with the EPA and going through that, they said, well,

[14:22] hey, we'll fund a resilient staffed project, and that's where Montana entered, and we worked

[14:29] with Ramball and Fine Felder to develop that initial plan back in 23. No, and from that

[14:35] plan, in that plan, it identifies multiple things and identifies house raises, and identifies

[14:42] the popular point project to restore popular point, which is a part of foresight. It identifies

[14:48] areas where roads could be raised. It identifies areas where the sewer system still needs

[14:54] to be replaced. You see that reflected in the township's capital plan.

[15:00] We're still in the process of replacing the sewer. B-taving wastes a huge area. It's around a little over 3,300 homes. To be able to replace all that sewer, you don't just snap your fingers and do that. So it's a well-faced process. We've been fortunate to get funding through the iBank, which DEP is also a part of through program called principle forgiveness. So every year for the last few, last four years, we've received on average around 2 million dollars to help fund that sewer.

[15:30] replacement. But the idea is, as well, to be able to raise the home, she got to replace the

[15:35] infrastructure that's in the ground, and in the process every year except for the COVID year and

[15:42] this past year, because it hasn't been available, we've been putting in for flood mitigation

[15:46] assistance grants. What those grants do are help people that are considered severely repetitive

[15:52] loss SRL or repetitive loss RRL raised their homes. So we've been successful in getting

[15:58] three of those grants. And we will continue once the thought process is those FMA

[16:05] implementation assistance grants will open up in 2026. Unfortunately, that process was an

[16:11] open this year. So we weren't able to do what we would typically do all the

[16:14] prior years. The idea of those ties back to this resilience staffer plan is if we fix the

[16:20] infrastructure, if we help to be good stewards of the land and work with our partners,

[16:25] like four sites like DEP, we can not only maintain but make the environment better through

[16:32] the sewer process. We're the only municipality that the DEP woulder quality division tells

[16:38] me. In the last, now it's 23 years, it'll be 24 years in about a year that it's cleaned up

[16:44] a major water body. From the sewer work that we've done, we've cleaned up 186 acres, which is

[16:49] the Barnaby, the Manohawk and Bay section of Barnaby, from the sewer work that's been done.

[16:54] If you look on a map for what are quality division, if you look to the north of Stachford,

[17:00] you'll look to the south of Stachford, you'll see there's issues with the, there's

[17:04] vehicle matter in those waters.

[17:07] So we've sort of a test case, right, to show, like, hey, this is what a municipality should

[17:12] look to do, right?

[17:13] If you look to maintain that infrastructure, we're not putting in, you know, what was previously

[17:19] done.

[17:20] Not only that, but we're maintaining the system.

[17:22] So, it's maintaining the system, but it's also saving the township money.

[17:26] There's something in the water and sewer world called I and I,

[17:29] it's when you get inundation into the system.

[17:32] Well, that's money that the residents of Stafford Township,

[17:34] because the system was old, it's from the 50, 60s and 70s,

[17:37] when the slogan was built, that we were paying to the OCUA,

[17:41] the regional sewer authority, that we shouldn't have been paying.

[17:45] That's roughly every year, in the last three years,

[17:48] because that's when we've seen the benefit of this,

[17:50] We've saved about a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year just in those feeds so like take that over a system that's meant to last

[17:57] 50 to 60 to 75 years

[18:00] This is a dynamic environment because it's a solid environment

[18:04] but with the materials that we're replacing it with we did a minimum we should see 50 years from the

[18:11] of the

[18:12] system

[18:13] That being said the the next thing on there is where the lagoon dredging's at so it's you see there. It says 26

[18:20] The government body just approved a couple of meetings to go the contract, which would be the popular point for

[18:27] rent.

[18:28] We're hopeful we're not going to have Montana put the good word in force like Santa Claus.

[18:36] We put in a $5 million additional grant to try to do the back end portion of the popular

[18:40] point, which is a permit that we worked on with with foresight, like we've been partners.

[18:46] We don't want to do anything that they don't want to do.

[18:48] But at the same time, if we can work together as partners or restore the wildlife, why wouldn't it?

[18:54] So we're, you know, we're keeping our fingers crossed on that.

[18:58] And that's what we will see in 26.

[19:03] Next thing is the settlement sampling.

[19:06] So as a part of that Lagoon study that was done back in 2019, 2020, 2021, we added new sampling.

[19:13] The idea behind this is, well, we don't want to put material that has any contamination or, you know,

[19:19] You want to use good soil essentially to be able to rebuild the marks, right?

[19:24] We're not going to rebuild the marks with areas that need to be excavated.

[19:28] The perfect example of this is we were able to obtain a grant through ARPA funds.

[19:33] American Rescue Plan funds, where we dredged, which was also part of a resilience effort,

[19:38] a section of the township, where the stormwater from Route 72, which was owned by the

[19:49] We use those funds, and that material was not placed on any foresight refuge.

[19:55] It was taken out of the system, unfortunately, because of a stormwater.

[19:59] You can imagine that area having chemicals in it that essentially you wouldn't want to replace on a revenue.

[20:07] So that's why this sentiment sampling was important.

[20:10] That was a part of the initial study.

[20:12] We also needed that because to be able to get touch-up by permits.

[20:15] We needed Army Corps of Engineers and the DEP to say like, hey, the material that you're using is not contaminated to be able to be placed.

[20:26] So, what the resilient New Jersey program is.

[20:30] I honestly can't tell you how thankful we are working with DEP.

[20:34] The other thing that DEP is done is on their websites.

[20:38] essentially the funding for this particular program is, you know, dwindling down. So municipalities

[20:45] that are all, you know, either barrel islands or coastal towns or Bayfront towns, they've

[20:51] set up templates. So essentially, you know, we got the benefit of having a Simon, having a

[20:57] Megan, having a Jim, having a long time to be partners at the table to do it. But essentially,

[21:02] that means that, you know, another municipality, they're a administrator. They're engineers,

[21:06] their planners, they could sit down and use these templates to come up and start to do it on their own.

[21:13] That's what I take the, you know, they've essentially written the playbook, you know, we're in football season.

[21:18] So it's like, okay, we gave you all the plays, you know, hey, you're going to have to tweak them for your municipality,

[21:24] but you have the playbook for how to go do this and that's what they've done.

[21:31] So municipal assistance grant, what we're looking for is, you know, the goal essentially is,

[21:37] as well, we have a problem, right?

[21:38] Usually in local government, we call them looking problems.

[21:41] It's not an easy problem to figure out.

[21:43] So we have, what are ways that are in need of driving?

[21:47] Okay, well, you know, think of all the problems to come up.

[21:49] You've got, you know, how do we fund it, right?

[21:52] Hey, how do we, how do we take that material

[21:54] and use it responsibly, right?

[21:57] If it's contaminated, well, it's got to be taken to a certain site.

[22:00] If it's not, hey, can we use it to restore March?

[22:03] Can we use it to restore, you know, enhanced the ecosystem?

[22:06] And in the process, pay if we can do it to make the touch of more resilient in the process.

[22:12] Why wouldn't you do that?

[22:13] Like, hey, this is an opportunity not only to restore what we see on a day-to-day basis,

[22:18] but hey, how do we make it so that this area is going to continue to be here into the future?

[22:24] Right?

[22:24] And if we look at the studies and, you know, Jim,

[22:30] Be compromised with sea level rise. Okay, what are we doing to make sure that the tout chip is here going into the future?

[22:39] The other thing is erosion control.

[22:42] Just today, I was out with one of our members from the Civic Association, working with Rowan University.

[22:48] They're doing samples of dredge material for a study. Again, more planning work, right?

[22:54] planning work is not fun. It's not something to go. It's like doing homework as a kid.

[22:58] It's not the A that you come home with. It's the work you got to go out and do to be able

[23:03] to show like hey, this can work. So, you know, today we're standing out in the coach, Joe and

[23:07] I are standing out in the cold, you know, seeing soil samples being taken. But we're on an edge

[23:14] where we also got a 1.3 million dollar grant to be able to control for erosion in our

[23:23] effort that we were able to get congressional funding for.

[23:28] That's part of what these great folks are doing for us as identifying these opportunities.

[23:36] So existing conditions.

[23:38] There you go, Megan.

[23:40] Thank you.

[23:44] Great.

[23:45] So I'm going to talk a little bit about where this project is and a couple more.

[23:50] A little more background for you all.

[23:53] So this project focuses on the portion of the four-site wildlife refuge in Stafford Township in the back base,

[24:03] and it is comprised of over 1,700 acres of coastal wetlands.

[24:10] Just to the south east, south west of B.J. West and west of Popular Point,

[24:18] and it's the site is owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

[24:26] This site is part of a greater system, so foresight is roughly 47,000 acres along the back

[24:35] base across 50 miles of and through three counties and majorities with pretty incredible

[24:43] system you have here in your state. It consists of salt marshes, coastal, unspoiled

[24:51] their beaches and some transition in upland areas. It was originally established as a

[24:59] two separate refugees.

[25:03] Barnagate in 1967 and Brigheting in 1939 and then it was combined in

[25:13] for and renamed after a conservationist, Congressmen for New Jersey, Edward B. Forza.

[25:19] And as I mentioned, it's owned and managed by US Fish and Wildlife. So, these partnerships

[25:26] are really important, as we think about this work, and go forward. I also want to mention

[25:32] that it lies within the indigenous lands of the Lenape, Lenape, who enjoyed seafood and

[25:40] land before Europeans and others will thrive.

[25:45] And now we can see some of the shoreline changes over time.

[25:56] Thank you.

[26:06] So now we can take a look at 1930 to 2020 entry from New Jersey

[26:12] machine pool, and you can see some changes, some pretty clear changes here.

[26:19] I think you haven't told us about

[26:23] it, but you can see that.

[26:26] You can see a lot of development has happened over here in BChain West.

[26:33] And let me just flip back real quick.

[26:35] And then here on the shoreline change, we've seen some erosion from storms and ongoing sea level rise,

[26:47] Here on popular point,

[26:51] oyster point and drum point.

[26:54] So these are areas that we have focused on for this front.

[27:06] So you may ask kind of like, what is the salt marsh?

[27:11] You're probably already know because it's in your backyard.

[27:14] But there are six important sections of a salt marsh that vary in relation to each other

[27:19] how they interact with water and how frequently they're inundated by tides. So you have

[27:26] the subtitle zone that's submerged all the time and then you have the title mudflat which is

[27:33] flooded at high tide but mostly submerged or mostly but not sorry flooded at high tide but

[27:43] is a mud flat at low tide, then you have low, sorry, low marsh, which is flooded at high

[27:51] tide, and then high marsh, which is only reached when you have salt spray or very high

[27:57] tides.

[28:00] And then there's the border, you have a traditional area where there's storm surge

[28:07] and where water only comes, there's storm surge, then you have the upland area. So the marsh

[28:13] here in Stafford Township follows this pattern as well and also I'd like to mention that there

[28:20] are salt pains and mosquito ditches in the marsh which are areas moderate tidal that deal moderate

[28:28] tidal ranges and that can have effective creating subtitle habitat in high marsh areas and

[28:36] might ask ourselves why we want to focus on marsh restoration and Matt brought up a lot of good points

[28:42] But coastal marshes, or wetlands,

[28:46] perform so many important functions for our environments,

[28:49] and our neighboring communities,

[28:52] and not only do they filter water, they protect from flooding,

[28:57] and they provide habitat.

[28:59] So it's really important to restore them.

[29:05] And what we're doing here is if salt marshes

[29:09] converted to mud flat, like that will limit its benefits

[29:12] for plants, animals, us, and it can have in two ways gradually due to sea level rise

[29:22] for due to human activities, such as in the sea level.

[29:27] And then I want to mention some incredible endangered but threatened and endangered

[29:37] but incredible species that are scarring around in the pipe enclosure, the red knot

[29:44] and the eastern black rail.

[29:47] And fourth site is really important

[29:48] because it's part of the Atlantic Flyway.

[29:51] So Mark Forty-Birds common go

[29:53] and stop hearing your back.

[30:00] Parts of the ecosystem and should be protected.

[30:06] And then finally, I want to just bring up our team looked at some similar and successful March Restoration

[30:12] projects, shooting Island, New Jersey and Ring Island, New Jersey. And it's important for us to

[30:19] look into projects that were successful and learn from them and see how we can bring them to

[30:25] This project is well-so shooting island over the past 40 years.

[30:30] The island scene historic and significant erosion due to wind and wave action.

[30:38] And to mitigate these forces, the original forces, the shoreline restoration project here,

[30:45] added a rock silk breakwater that would both protect and provide invertebrate habitat,

[30:53] as well as a shoreline edge that would protect the marsh behind it.

[31:00] And then over here on the Green Island,

[31:04] we have another salt marsh restoration project in New Jersey funded by National Fish and Wildlife.

[31:12] And it the goal was to restore the salt marsh and to help with beneficial reuse as well.

[31:20] So, these are two projects that we look to detail for our content.

[31:38] Thank you, Meg.

[31:39] And thanks, Matt, again, for having us here.

[31:43] I'm going to talk through some of the ideas that our team came up with for the conceptual design.

[31:48] I want to start by matching a couple of quick points here, which are that number one.

[31:57] Our team, we're multi-disciplinary, we have civil engineers, landscape architects, ecologists,

[32:04] low lead planners like myself, but it's a very broad team, and we had a lot of folks

[32:09] coming up with ideas working with Matt and his team at the township and their engineer as

[32:15] well.

[32:16] And having said all of that, I want to reiterate something that Matt pointed out at the top,

[32:20] which is that this is just a starting point, this is not detailed design, this is a

[32:25] the conceptual design study that helps move the ball forward and helps ideally secure some additional funds

[32:33] that you need in order to do that detail design phase. So, when you start doing things like flood modeling

[32:39] and really putting pen to paper, things are probably going to change, but there are some strong ideas here that are a good starting point.

[32:48] The other thing I want to highlight is that the Lagoon study in the Dredging Project and the idea of restoring the marsh here are so important to each other, right?

[33:04] They're supportive, they're synergistic, they're two different projects that are really critical for each other.

[33:14] Without a sort of marsh restoration project here,

[33:17] what are you going to do with all that dredge material?

[33:19] It's got to go to a landfill.

[33:20] It's going to cost the township a lot of money.

[33:23] Without the Lagoon dredging project,

[33:25] how are you going to restore the marsh?

[33:26] You've got to find a place to get all this material from.

[33:29] So it's a great opportunity that the township has

[33:31] that these two projects are aligned,

[33:34] spatially and also in terms of the time where they're happening.

[33:39] There's four components that we came up with here in terms of the sort of physical design.

[33:44] The logistics are also critical, and Jim is going to talk about that in a few moments.

[33:49] In terms of the sort of spatial components, there's filling the mosquito ditches,

[33:55] which Meg talked about restoring pireal connectivity, thin layer placement of that regent material,

[34:02] and creating a March sale at the edge to prevent erosion and mitigate the way of action.

[34:08] So I'm going to go through each of these, one by one, starting with the mosquito ditches and the idea here is we have these measures that we're sort of put into place over the course of decades that interrupted the title connectivity, they were intended to promote habitat and concentrate mosquitoes in different parts of the marsh.

[34:35] It's these sort of parallel lines that you see in all these sort of newer or sort of modern or sort of impacted marsh landscapes.

[34:47] We want to fill these in in order to again restore that title connectivity or contribute to that.

[34:55] Don't talk about it in a moment, but also provide provide more habitats.

[34:59] So on the sort of left side of the screen,

[35:02] you see one of these mosquito ditches that has a depth to it, right?

[35:05] There's water flowing through there, and that means

[35:08] that there is the soil coming up toward the surface,

[35:13] providing a place for native vegetation and habitat.

[35:19] So bringing these mosquito ditches back

[35:21] to a more natural condition will provide more habitat

[35:25] support sedimentation.

[35:26] So we're trying to reduce some of that erosion

[35:28] that happens over time and contributing to a healthier

[35:34] market of the time.

[35:36] So the feeling that mosquito stitches is the first piece here.

[35:42] The second one is restoring the title connectivity.

[35:45] So if you look at the sort of area that's kind of underlaying here,

[35:50] and if you look in the bottom middle of the slide,

[35:53] where you can see all of these sort of squiggly lines, right?

[35:56] That's a part of the marsh here that is healthier.

[35:59] It's been less impacted over time by human development and changes to the marsh.

[36:06] And those runnels, those, those, those, those, those, those, those almost creeps that are

[36:09] cutting through the marsh, are, are that natural tidal connectivity that you see in, in a marshland

[36:15] that hasn't been impacted or, or is, or is healthier, and, and, and that's what we want

[36:21] instead of the mosquito ditches.

[36:22] We want these more sort of natural, natural habitats that are still still allowing the, the sort

[36:28] to hide the command and bring that flow of water, but they're also bringing sediment that's contributing

[36:36] to the sustainability of the marsh.

[36:39] So restoring the tidal conductivity is about enhancing these runals or these sort of creeks

[36:45] almost that are cutting through the marsh.

[36:47] So that's restoring this hydraulic function, this exchange of water between the bay and the

[36:54] It's improving that high-marish habitat and promoting that equation.

[36:59] So in other words, the marsh, when it erodes, there are sort of two things that are happening

[37:05] that are causing it to degrade over time.

[37:07] It's that sediment leaving the marsh and it's also, it's not keeping pace with sea level rise.

[37:13] So by restoring this title connectivity with these runnels that are cutting through the marsh,

[37:18] You're also providing a way for this natural flow between the bay and the marsh to bring sediment in, right, and help too.

[37:30] And help to sort of build up that march over time, even as even as sea level continues to rise.

[37:39] The third component here is thin layer placement. By the way, each of these have an aspect

[37:46] of sort of trading with the sediment transport from dredging the lagoon and bringing that

[37:53] material over, over to the marsh.

[37:55] And thin layer placement is directly about that, right?

[37:59] thin layer placement of what?

[38:01] It's beneficial reuse of dredge material.

[38:04] And so what's happening is that that dredging action

[38:07] from the lagoon is bringing that dredge material,

[38:11] which has been tested.

[38:12] It's not toxic.

[38:13] It's healthy for the marsh.

[38:15] There's different types of dredge material,

[38:16] finer grain or coarse grain.

[38:20] But it's applying a thin layer of that direct material to the marsh to build it up.

[38:27] And what's important here is that you can't just dump multiple feet of direct material on top of the marsh.

[38:34] It'll sort of drown the habitat underneath.

[38:37] And so this has to happen incrementally.

[38:40] It's in inches, it's not in feet.

[38:42] And what that means is that it's not like all of a sudden your marsh is a storm surge barrier.

[38:46] right? It's not what it's doing. It could happen incrementally, right? There could be a layer that's applied

[38:52] at one period of time and then another layer at another period of time in the future.

[38:58] But it's incremental, thin, thin being the operative word and thin layer placement, right?

[39:04] However, having said that, the marsh keeping pace with sea level rise is also part of a piece of the

[39:15] flood mitigation and protection for the township, right?

[39:19] You think about that sort of southwestern portion of B.

[39:22] Chavin West, which gets, which takes the brunt of a, you know, way

[39:27] of action from, from a northeastern that's coming in from, from the south,

[39:32] south-east, right?

[39:35] And I'm going to talk about the, the Marseille in a moment, which is a piece

[39:38] of this.

[39:39] But the Marseille itself and having that Marseille, a creed over time and

[39:43] up over time is like a long, a long way of attenuation, right? So over this long distance from

[39:50] the Bay all the way, all the way to the southern portion of B.J. in West, you have this

[39:55] feature that is tamping down waves. It's not a floodball, right? It's not doing that,

[40:01] but it's helping to mitigate those waves over that long stretch,

[40:07] right? And so increasing

[40:08] the elevation of the marsh through within layer placement. It's building up, it's a great

[40:15] beneficial use of locally dredge material. As I said, it's a place to put that dredge

[40:20] material, so you don't have to pay to put it in a landfill somewhere. And it's helping

[40:25] to support habitat and ecosystem restoration of the marsh as it gets built up of the time.

[40:33] And the final portion that I'm going to talk about is restoration or creation of this

[40:39] So Meg talked about how the edge of that marsh has eroded over time, not a ton, right?

[40:46] It's not like the marsh has retreated so far from the bay, but it's retreated somewhat.

[40:53] And we want to sort of strengthen that edge.

[40:55] We build it back out to the 1977 tide line.

[40:58] And also be mindful that we can look to the past, you know, the erosion that's happened isn't dramatic yet.

[41:06] We also want to be mindful of what we expect to happen in the future as as the sea level continues to rise.

[41:12] It makes sure that that doesn't continue to drown.

[41:16] Drown the margin or road that edge.

[41:18] So the marxill is helping to accomplish that.

[41:23] I'm going to show a little bit more detail about these two alternatives or two examples of marxill measures on the next slide.

[41:31] But I want to point out here first what they are.

[41:34] You can see along the edge of the marsh there's some areas where there's a red line

[41:43] and other areas where there's a yellow line.

[41:47] The marsh still that's in red is we're calling that configuration one.

[41:52] That's for areas that are more exposed to wave action and they need a sort of heavier or a stronger seal structure in place.

[42:00] The areas where there's yellow are less exposed to wave action, and they can be softer,

[42:06] they can be a bit more of a nature-based solution.

[42:09] Both have components of nature-based solutions, but that's the difference between the two,

[42:13] is the one that really needs a little bit more armor and protection,

[42:15] so that it can remain in place.

[42:20] And here's a bit about what these two examples look like.

[42:24] The one on the top is for higher wave energy, and you can see on the sort of top left

[42:29] the screen that trapezoid is that is meant to hold that edge in place and allow for sediment

[42:43] to build up behind it so that it can remain in place.

[42:48] You can see on the right side of the diagram, this top diagram, all of these acronyms,

[42:54] mhw mean higher high water and lw mean lower low water that's sort of like your high tide in your low tide right and you can see that

[43:03] that's still that edge of of this of this

[43:08] Marsill is above

[43:10] Low tide and below high tide so it'll be exposed during part of the you know part of the tide cycle

[43:16] And it'll be it'll be hidden under the under the sort of high tide during part of the tide cycle

[43:20] So that's that low marsh cycle that Meg was talking about.

[43:25] The example on the bottom, this configuration 2 for lower wave energy,

[43:29] you can see you can almost barely see it on the screen here,

[43:32] but there's a very tiny sill on the edge.

[43:35] And it doesn't need to be as robust or as armored,

[43:39] because these are parts of the marsh that are not exposed to that wave energy.

[43:42] So this is where there's an opportunity to use the softer solution.

[43:46] And it's still going to collect sediment behind it,

[43:50] and still going to build up that seal of that low marsh.

[43:54] So it keeps that edge in place,

[43:56] and you don't have to worry as much about that

[43:57] erosion over time.

[43:59] Both of these examples also have some height to them.

[44:02] And you can see that, especially in the diagram at the top,

[44:06] and the right side of that diagram,

[44:08] it's getting up to about three or four feet above sea level.

[44:14] And what is that doing?

[44:15] Again, this is not a flood wall, right?

[44:17] This is not preventing water from getting all the way into the top of the marsh or even to

[44:22] be chipping west.

[44:24] The reason for that is that you want that tidal connectivity for a healthy marsh, right?

[44:27] You don't want to block the water from getting in at all.

[44:30] It's really about wave action, right?

[44:32] It's about those larger storms, they're going to hit that sort of almost-dune structure of

[44:37] the sill and it's going to tamp down those waves so that they're not going to run as far up

[44:41] upland.

[44:42] And when they do, they're not going to have as much energy that's going to cause

[44:47] So that's, those are some of the key functions of the Mars still here.

[44:53] And with that, I'm going to turn it to Jim to talk through the logistics here.

[45:02] Thank you, Simon. So I do want to talk a little bit about the logistics. So the logistics is really going to be the how are we going to do this? And let me just re-emphasize where in a very conceptual design here. So like what you're going to see is not necessarily how this will play out, but I just want to emphasize that this is a very important part of the design. Once you've seen a conceptual design, but what we also will have to do is to, all of those components that Simon just explained, we're going to have to

[45:32] figure out how that's going to be done in the most efficient and cost effective manner.

[45:38] We're also going to have to figure out when it's going to be done, not just in the calendar

[45:42] year, because we will have to deal with permitting restrictions because of habitat, because of fish,

[45:51] cycling, or the fisheries, obviously recreational season. So how we exactly do that in which sequence

[46:00] become very important. So we really want to, we will have to spend a lot of time in the design

[46:06] actually figuring out the construction sequence, the permitting, what's really nice in this project,

[46:14] is Matt has a dredging permit for probably more sediment than we could ever really need. He's going to

[46:21] use part of it in the next year's popular point project, but really it presents an opportunity for us to then

[46:27] figure out how do we get that source material to the march?

[46:32] And I want to emphasize, again, this is really a beneficial reuse.

[46:36] And that's really important because when you're just

[46:39] dredging a waterways for navigation or for recreation,

[46:44] you have a lot of sediment to dispose of.

[46:46] I mean, we're talking 10,000, if not hundreds of thousands of cubic

[46:50] here. Previous practices we've put those in confined disposal CDF's confined disposal facility.

[47:02] But here we can use that for beneficial reuse to rest restored in this case of the march.

[47:12] So there's really, conceptually, what we're looking at is probably doing hydraulic

[47:17] I think that's what's going to be part of the popular point project next year.

[47:22] You can also do mechanical judging, but for an area that we're talking about in and around

[47:27] the lagoon in the bay, hydraulic judging really becomes the preferred option because

[47:31] you can pump it into various parts of the march.

[47:36] This march has a fairly large footprint.

[47:39] There's interior portions of the march where if we were to do this mechanically we'd have

[47:43] a lot of heavy equipment working in and around the marsh and we'd like to avoid that as much

[47:48] as possible. The nice thing about hydraulic dredging is based on the sediment sampling plan,

[47:54] we can break down and mobilize the dredging operation where it's starting to dredge out the material

[48:04] and place it really wherever we want. And that's important because we haven't talked too much

[48:11] about the different practices, but we do their, the sediment sampling revealed there's different

[48:16] size sediment grains in the around the butt, the bay, and the lagoon irks. We really want the

[48:25] finer sediment, that's kind of the silt, what you might call muck, that's going to be more

[48:30] nourishing and provide a better soil matrix in the interior portions of the marsh, behind

[48:37] the sill that Simon just described, we're probably going to want course material a little bit

[48:41] more sander material. And the sentiments that they've sampled have both. So depending

[48:47] on where we're working in that, that's going to also direct where we're going to be taking

[48:52] the source material from. I'm going to of course we're going to have the permit or we're

[48:57] going to have to coordinate with the NJDP, with the Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife,

[49:02] if they've had a number of conversations

[49:05] and input into the permits that have been granted so far.

[49:11] So this is a good example of a mosquito ditch,

[49:16] like firsthand, what's really important to understand

[49:20] in these nature-based practices is elevation

[49:24] really is everything in the water.

[49:26] We showed you some of those elevations

[49:27] from mean low water to mean high tide.

[49:32] Sometimes that's only two or three feet.

[49:34] And I bet we don't have exact topo, but I think I've seen some of the topography from the other thing.

[49:40] You might be talking about a total elevation difference of lesson five feet.

[49:43] That's up to my nose to the floor.

[49:46] So really inches become critical in the different ecosystems within the march.

[49:52] With a mosquito ditch, that bottom of that ditch there really is below the low, mean low high water.

[49:58] It really is too low because it was dredged out and ditched to support any kind of vegetation.

[50:04] that core grass that's far tiny there, on either side of the ditch, simply can't grow in that kind of depth.

[50:12] So what we're going to do in the design is figure out what's the best way to start filling those ditches.

[50:18] Now there's a couple ways we can do that. We can put a channel block, typically some kind of natural material like cables,

[50:25] that will block that channel, and as the dredge material gets discharged into that ditch, it starts to fill up.

[50:33] It starts to consolidate.

[50:35] It's initially a slurry, probably about 80 to 90% water,

[50:38] but it does contain fair amounts of sediment.

[50:42] That's going to eventually de-water and settle.

[50:45] And that's going to start bringing up the bottom of that ditch.

[50:49] We can also do it in what we call, like,

[50:52] even call a pre-treatment of the ditch itself.

[50:55] We could line part of that ditch with, like,

[50:59] straw, roughing up the surface,

[51:01] So that if some of the sediment gets discharged onto the higher portions where we wanted to start that thin left,

[51:10] as that water runs off into that ditch, now it's slow down when water is slow as you probably know, it starts to drop the sediments.

[51:20] Sandy sediments get dropped first as it slows, and then as you go into the almost point where the water becomes still,

[51:27] then you get the set of the finest set of its falling out.

[51:32] So that's really how we sequence this.

[51:35] We haven't actually figured out because we don't have a full design.

[51:38] But it could happen a number of ways.

[51:42] I'm going to come back to that.

[51:44] So here we have what could work these white lines you're seeing are what we call cells.

[51:51] So we might put some type of containment, not like a wall or fence,

[51:56] but some type of filter sock or core C-O-I-R core fiber logs, they act like little barriers

[52:05] and we kind of create little weighty pools.

[52:07] And as the sediment gets discharged and each one of these cells, it does a couple things.

[52:12] It starts that thin layer placement.

[52:14] Some of that water will run off into the natural low spots, like the mosquito ditches,

[52:19] and we'll start to settle into fill.

[52:22] So, as you can see, this is a fairly large area. So, we're obviously taking this.

[52:34] We need to know free. That has to transport quite a distance. I mean, we don't want to have.

[52:41] You know, construction type of dump trucks, off road dump trucks, excavators, working in areas, much as we want to minimize that as much as possible.

[52:50] So, having a pipeline for discharge and hydraulic judging really can span that distance.

[52:56] And then we can move that and create a discharge point, almost anywhere we want.

[53:01] So let me go back to the title precursor, and these runnels, you might be wondering why would

[53:09] we create a runnel, which looks like a mosquito did right after we've filled some of the

[53:13] mosquito digits.

[53:14] The difference is, these runnels, first of all, they're not nearly as deep as the misguided

[53:19] digits.

[53:20] I mentioned the elevation of the bottom of that mosquito ditch being below mean low water.

[53:26] Well, that doesn't allow any vegetation to grow.

[53:29] These runnels, as you see, 30 by 30 centimeters, that's about a foot, foot wide, foot deep.

[53:35] They would be placed above the mean low water, so that's going to allow some of the

[53:40] core grass to spark tiny to grow.

[53:44] And it's going to allow, like I think Simon mentioned, the title, Ebb and Flo, to go into

[53:49] deeper portions of the march.

[53:51] And that's really the difference between like those mosquito ditches and these runnels.

[53:56] Some of these, you see that before pictures, those are like salt water pans, they've kind

[54:02] of become isolated, they get a high tide but they can't discharge on the diurnal circles,

[54:09] cycles of a tide.

[54:11] So by allowing these, creating these runals, that restores that tidal connection.

[54:17] So this might be an area though where we do have to have some mechanical equipment,

[54:25] like

[54:25] pressure to create those runnels. And that's going to be a fairly light touch, but you know

[54:31] that is going to be more of the mechanical touching up portions where we want to create those runnels.

[54:40] But again, and it great expands like that with high pressure discharge from a hydraulic

[54:45] drip, you can almost do like a, you can almost imagine like irrigation, but rather just spring water,

[54:51] It's water laden with sediment, which is going to help nourish and start filling that marsh.

[55:01] So, the key thing is, yeah, we're going to design the sequencing directly into that plan.

[55:08] And as we get further along in a design, we would take all those considerations into play.

[55:14] It really does become kind of an orchestration of, where are we going to, when are we getting it?

[55:21] How's it going to be placed and this might be a multi-year effort because the thin layer of placement is Simon mentioned isn't going to happen overnight

[55:27] You know, we might be talking four to six inches any given season or over a course of a multi-phase project. So

[55:37] That's the hopefully the how and one how we're going to do so next steps

[55:44] You want to talk Matt or

[55:47] But this is yeah, this is our part. So this effort that

[55:54] We are actually wrapping this up.

[55:57] This presentation is actually the finalizing everything that we've had.

[56:04] We wanted to present it to the public.

[56:06] We are going to be doing a final report on behalf of NJDPs.

[56:10] I'm going to name it to Stafford.

[56:15] We have to get to part of that.

[56:18] obviously now we'll hand that off to Matt that will be the basis for them to submit

[56:22] for additional grants to do get funding for design, get funding for the other permits.

[56:31] When you apply for these grants, they really want a good action plan and that's really the benefit

[56:35] of what we've done today is staff are based on this conceptual design.

[56:40] Really have a good master plan for the next level of grants.

[56:47] even NJDP, nobody gives you a bag of cash to go do a big project.

[56:52] They want to see exactly what you're going to do.

[56:54] So now, with this conceptual design, we're going to have a better idea.

[56:59] And I'll let Matt talk about the last bullet point,

[57:02] and then we'll take some questions.

[57:05] As we're just about over five minutes.

[57:14] Like it said, that last bullet point is really the whole,

[57:17] this is kind of the whole things, the proofs and the pudding.

[57:20] We have to get through that planning process, so between Climbelder and Rambel, they've helped give us essentially the opportunity to be able to go after these different bunnings.

[57:33] It's the same thing that we did with Rzeigh and Stafford.

[57:36] It opens up that process for us.

[57:38] So that's essentially what we'll do.

[57:40] It's state federal sources.

[57:42] We're going to look at any source that comes out.

[57:44] And there was an opportunity that we put in a couple months ago through one of the, there was a wind project that was being worked on that there was crap on it.

[57:57] Well, if we can make and restore the wildlife, you know, we're going to look for any and all opportunities to come up.

[58:04] So that's what we'll continue to do.

[58:06] So I think at that point we'll turn it over to the audience.

[58:09] So if anybody has any questions or if you can put on your own doing things, anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

[58:20] Let's say here.

[58:26] Just watch it, but it's time to get turn it off.

[58:32] Hello.

[58:35] Okay, my question is, I understand that we're using this as a plan to move forward for funding for the actual work itself.

[58:46] Is that correct?

[58:47] So with this it would there's gonna be more planning that comes with it so it honestly depends on what what type of funding comes out

[58:56] So sometimes funding comes out for actual projects

[59:01] If any of these conceptual designs, you know, that's further conversations with foresafe if they're all bored with those concepts that come up

[59:09] If there's opportunities to do that, you know, and foresafe for all bored then we would try you know the answer would be we would try

[59:16] sometimes the opportunities come in the form of actual plans and design.

[59:22] So this is more of a concept design to get to the point where you could go in and get to the

[59:28] point of having permits to actually go and do the work, usually need a site specific design.

[59:34] You need the power we actually got to do it.

[59:36] So is it the role as a March restoration, is it then layered disposal, and have to be able

[59:41] to document how you could get there to really just depends on the opportunity.

[59:45] Okay, so that brings you to my next question, and that is, I know that the people of B.T.A.M. West have been clamoring for this dread project to occur for many, many years.

[1:00:00] I'm moving forward. My question is, do we have a timeline for that? Is it dependent on what happens

[1:00:07] with popular point? Or is it just something that's going to happen at the end?

[1:00:13] So, the answer is right now with the timeline is popular points about the happen first.

[1:00:20] That's that silt. The time and show the picture of the shows that happened.

[1:00:25] That's how we go in.

[1:00:27] That's the resiliency part.

[1:00:29] The back end of what happens from there is further conversations with four sites.

[1:00:35] So a timeline on that, I can give you right now.

[1:00:37] Sharon, but the answer is we're going to continue to try.

[1:00:40] So is it this particular section?

[1:00:42] You know, maybe dependent on the funding and the funding comes through for the back end portion that we put in for.

[1:00:49] Or could it come in the form of working with DMP on the mud city side?

[1:00:54] There's also opportunities because DOP has the directing division to be able to work with them,

[1:01:00] which we have documented in the Brazilian staffer.

[1:01:02] You know, so how we get to whatever the next project will be, I don't know.

[1:01:06] You know, the answer is that I don't know right then second.

[1:01:08] But the answer is that we're going to continue to try to continue to open up the lagoon.

[1:01:15] It's got to work for everybody, right?

[1:01:17] So it's got to work.

[1:01:18] The other process that the township has right now is if individuals that live on in the Lagoon system if they wanted to choose to go out and

[1:01:28] Drench behind them, they can use the township permit.

[1:01:31] Well, the township permit has two spots.

[1:01:33] You can either take that material and tuck home turf farms.

[1:01:37] And they'll use the material to grow marsh grasses that they grow.

[1:01:42] But then you're talking about transportation costs to get it there to disposal peas all that.

[1:01:47] And then the other the other five is there's an area in eagles with that we have under a permit to be able to take that material there.

[1:01:53] Again, it's the same thing you have to be able to transport it and transport it responsibly.

[1:01:58] You can't just go out there and, you know, mug goes down the highway with it as you're going there.

[1:02:03] It has to be containerized tank, so those are all specialty items, so costs, you know, there's a cost to that.

[1:02:09] So that's an option that the residents have now to take action themselves.

[1:02:13] other than that, this is, that's why we did the study process in the beginning as to open up

[1:02:18] these opportunities to essentially go after much grant money as we can to try to fund it.

[1:02:23] Well, you know, I'm all for that, so that's it.

[1:02:27] I just want to add one other thought to that, which is that, you know, I think we understand

[1:02:34] that, you know, this is a planning process and it can be frustrating to hear the next thing

[1:02:39] is going to be another planner or another more detailed design.

[1:02:43] And

[1:02:55] I just want to talk about one example

[1:02:57] that our teams have worked on recently

[1:03:00] that shows that that process can work.

[1:03:03] It does take time, right?

[1:03:04] But it shows that that process can work.

[1:03:05] So Rambal and Kleinfeld are worked together

[1:03:08] with Long Beach Island, and as part

[1:03:10] of that Long Beach Township on a recent planning study.

[1:03:14] And one of the outcomes of that was a recommendation

[1:03:16] for, for, for design of a living shoreline at, at Long Beach Hunchips, D.P.W. facility.

[1:03:24] They, they were able to take the work that we did as part of Brazilian Long Beach Island.

[1:03:28] Get a grant from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

[1:03:32] National, it's the grant source is called the National Coastal Resilience Fund.

[1:03:36] And that grant was for full design and permitting.

[1:03:40] So it's not going to go to construction.

[1:03:43] However, if we have a national physician wildlife foundation, it's one of those funding sources

[1:03:48] where they like to give funding and increments, they want to get that planning and design

[1:03:53] done, and then they want to fund the construction, right?

[1:03:56] They don't want it to just stop there.

[1:03:58] So what Long Beach Township is doing is not just, hey, let's get this design in place, and then

[1:04:03] we'll move on to the next thing.

[1:04:05] The goal would be to go back to that funding source or another one and get the funds for the

[1:04:10] capital work.

[1:04:10] So I understand, right, it's another step in the process, it'd be great to just get all that

[1:04:15] capital funding all at once, and in some cases you can, that's done that, right, but this

[1:04:21] is one thing that we were able to do now, that in some cases you need that, you need that

[1:04:25] master plan in place, as Jim said, to get that next, that next source.

[1:04:30] I think that's important to put it out to the day.

[1:04:33] You have to remember, we're working with it's municipal government, it's county government,

[1:04:38] state governments, federal government, things take, unfortunately, things sometimes

[1:04:42] things take time.

[1:04:44] So, like to give an example, we have a county library that we worked with Ocean County

[1:04:47] government.

[1:04:48] That was a grant that I worked with the county to write that five years ago.

[1:04:53] And the library is not open yet, right?

[1:04:56] We're hopeful that it's going to open in the beginning of 2026.

[1:05:00] But if we don't work on the plans now, to give you an idea, we're close to $50 million

[1:05:07] or is a grant funding in six and a half years.

[1:05:10] So the thing is, if we didn't put the work in six and a half years ago, we might be zero.

[1:05:16] So if the idea is, is you keep working on it and keep looking for those opportunities.

[1:05:24] And especially when you are focused on whether it's consulting services that you're getting,

[1:05:30] or whether it's plans, or whether it's capital projects, you have to keep an eye out for those opportunities.

[1:05:35] So we've got really good connections that you see here tonight with us, but we've got really good staff

[1:05:42] that continue to look for those opportunities, and when they come up, the answer is

[1:05:46] is we're going to be prepared to do it, the P, Rambal, Climb Powder, and put us in that opportunity

[1:05:51] to be able to be ready to go after them.

[1:05:53] So any other questions?

[1:05:59] No questions?

[1:06:00] Yeah, go ahead.

[1:06:03] Yeah, here, you know, my question is really more from make a store for an environment.

[1:06:11] have you done these thin layer placements and been able to go back through to make sure

[1:06:16] that you haven't had like a invasive bright might and you've done these before?

[1:06:26] So for this one, I'm going to put one of our colleagues on the spot who's joining

[1:06:32] on the Zoom, who's going to college so Maggie, if you can make sure the mic is there and

[1:06:37] Well, that's great, and if you can, let me even help in a way in here.

[1:06:44] Brandon, do you hear that question?

[1:06:46] I did it in sound of like there was a question about controlling fragmites proliferation

[1:06:52] on the march.

[1:06:54] Well, it's specifically a precedent, for example, that's up to another place in other

[1:06:58] regions.

[1:07:01] Oh, I understand.

[1:07:02] So, I mean, as far as thin layer of placement examples, in other locations, make point

[1:07:08] out earlier, the example on the Bring Island project in New Jersey is a good example

[1:07:14] where Finlayer Placement was applied in Steve's sort of.

[1:07:31] The prime book reservation is another example of the comes to mind that was in Delaware, just down the coast.

[1:07:40] Avalon might have been another good example in New Jersey.

[1:07:44] But as Jim pointed out, these marshes are really sensitive to the elevation that you placed at the surface of that, particularly because of the species that survived there.

[1:07:59] Fragmites is one that really cannot put up with salt water and so by placing just enough

[1:08:11] sediment, elevate that marsh above the mean sea level or just below mean high water,

[1:08:21] we're able to control.

[1:08:35] A lot of what we've been speaking about, I would consider a lot of these

[1:08:39] almost first generation.

[1:08:42] Let me shorelines in nature based solutions and marshes believe it or not, has not been around

[1:08:47] as long as, say, maybe some of the freshwater or riverine systems that we've done inland.

[1:08:53] This is really, I'm not going to say it's brand new, but it's really still in its kind of impensive.

[1:09:00] These are a lot of these projects haven't been happening for more than like even ten years.

[1:09:06] Specifically, I can, if you like, downloading federal documents, there is a, the Corps of

[1:09:13] Engineer, Brandon Curtney, if I'm wrong, released a study called Guidelines of the

[1:09:19] then layer placement, and I want to say it was released in 2023, that's how new it is, but

[1:09:24] they actually went through some of the projects and kind of, well, lessons learned.

[1:09:31] Do I have that document right, Brandon?

[1:09:33] The correct, I have it here's the 20-23 guidelines for how to approach thin layer placement projects.

[1:09:41] That is an Army Corps document.

[1:09:43] They also, actually, published it through their engineering research and development group called ERTC,

[1:09:52] sorry, engineer research development center, and so they kind of handle all the technical

[1:09:59] maybe borderline academic elements. It's a PDF, maybe 200 page document, you can

[1:10:04] just download for free. If I could, I'll give it to you, but you shouldn't be hard, it shouldn't be hard to find.

[1:10:11] I mean, it is fairly technical, but I think it's a venture, this is something you find

[1:10:17] interstainer on a follow-up. It's certainly kind of our playbook, because like I said

[1:10:23] a lot of these things are new, and you don't know we see the effects of a project and restoration

[1:10:29] project in year one, or even year two. So what they are doing is monitoring these projects

[1:10:36] as multiple years, seeing exactly what you've pointed out like, is there an influx of invasive

[1:10:43] What's the settlement rate versus the accretion rate of some of these things?

[1:10:48] Are we just kind of like,

[1:10:50] Trading water, like if we're putting it in X amount of inches per year,

[1:10:54] Are we actually getting that accretion that we're looking for?

[1:10:59] So that's, they're really starting to,

[1:11:02] You know, we're getting feedback from real projects like Brandon just mentioned.

[1:11:07] Yeah, that doctor has a ton of examples.

[1:11:11] So, Louisiana has had some major, he has a bunch of temples along the eastern coast, it's a bit of a factory, you know, as you see some pictures.

[1:11:26] I would agree just from dual projects in the state, essentially you have to learn from each project that you do.

[1:11:33] So, there's things that don't get tweaked each time you do a project just based off to that information.

[1:11:37] And like Jim said, the monitoring is crucial because some projects are going to take better than others.

[1:11:44] You know, that monitoring portion would be able to go back to examples of what you had, you know, what we would do.

[1:11:51] Any other questions?

[1:11:53] I think just a last call for folks online.

[1:11:56] If you've got any questions, put them in the chat there.

[1:11:59] But in the meantime, any other questions here?

[1:12:11] All right. Well, thank you everyone. Again, you know, I'd like to thank DEP.

[1:12:15] Thank Ramball, thank the folks from Climphelter, they've done an excellent job, we appreciate it.

[1:12:20] Our next step from here is Jim mentioned is we'll get a deliverable back from DEP that I'll say this is the final document.

[1:12:29] And then typically what we'll see us do is we'll take it before our boards, our planning board, our zoning board.

[1:12:33] We'll take it before the governing body and adopt just like we did with the Zing and Stafford, and that'll be our plan.

[1:12:39] As Jim said, we've done a number of plans over the last six years.

[1:12:43] The idea is not only to give us a game plan for what we're doing going forward with different avenues, whether it's resiliency,

[1:12:51] or, you know, looking for these restoration projects, but also to help with our master plan as we go to update the townships master plan in the future.

[1:13:00] So, thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate it.

[1:13:03] Have a great night everyone.

Dec 09, 2025 Resilient Stafford Workshop December 2025

Agenda

Transcript